The first statue of a woman on IU-Bloomington’s campus will be unveiled Thursday. The statute is of Elinor Ostrom, a 2009 Nobel Prize winner and former IU professor, according to an IU press release.
The statue of her will sit behind Woodburn Hall next to a historical marker that was placed there in October 2019. The area will be dedicated as the Ostrom Commons, according to the release.
Ostrom was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics. She and her husband founded the Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. She started working at IU in 1965 and died in Bloomington in 2012.
IU alumnus Michael McAuley, who also created the Hoagy Carmichael sculpture by the IU auditorium, spent nine months on the Ostrom statue, according to the press release.
The statue was commissioned as part of IU’s Bicentennial Bridging the Visibility Gap project, which is working to tell the story of underappreciated women and underrepresented minorities who’ve done important work around the university.
The ceremony will take place behind Woodburn Hall at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 12. Some people can attend in person, but people can also attend virtually.
